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America as Manasseh – Fulfilling Prophecies

World News & Prophecy Review

By Craig Martin White

June 10, 2026: Editor’s Note: As World News & Prophecy Review anticipates the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026, Craig White, submitted this piece which helps explain the historical significance as well as national character traits of the United States. Mr. White is an archivist researcher and avid Bible Student. More of Mr. White’s work can be found here: FOS | Friends of Sabbath

The former Worldwide Church of God and many of its offshoots have held the view that the ‘lost’ tribes of Israel migrated into the British Isles, the British colonies (including America) and certain nations located in northwest Europe.

A component of this doctrine is the belief that the Anglo-Americans were descendants of the tribe of Manasseh.

This article examines the historical development of the belief that the United States represents the modern tribe of Manasseh. It references Herbert W. Armstrong’s interpretation, traces earlier influences on the doctrine, and considers historical, cultural, and demographic evidence that proponents believe supports this identification.

The Influence of Herbert W Armstrong

Although Herbert W. Armstrong popularised this teaching, he did not originate the concept. The identification of Anglo-Saxon peoples with the tribes of Israel had been developing for decades through the work of earlier British-Israel writers.

Based on his readings, Mr Armstrong posited that the Anglo element of the United States are direct descendants of the tribe of Manasseh, whereas England and certain former colonies, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of South Africa from Ephraim. Collectively, they received the birthright blessings that were promised to Joseph’s sons, which are distinct from the sceptre promises held by Judah.

This principle is a fundamental aspect of his interpretation of British Israelism, which identifies English-speaking populations as the descendants of the ‘Lost Ten Tribes’ of Israel who migrated to northwest Europe following release from the Assyrian captivity.

Mr Armstrong based his argument on Genesis 48 (Jacob’s blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh):

As Mr Armstrong explained in The United States and Britain in Prophecy (1980 edition): “…he [Manasseh] also shall become a people [nation], and he also shall be GREAT: but truly his younger brother [Ephraim] shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a MULTITUDE [a company, or COMMONWEALTH] of NATIONS’ (Gen. 48:19).” (p. 106)

He interpreted this prophecy to mean that Ephraim was England which possessed the most significant empire in history (‘company of nations’); while Manasseh became the United States – a singular great nation that separated from Britain and grew very powerful in terms of population and wealth.

He also connected this to the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 12, 17, 22, 28, 35, 49; Deuteronomy 33). Notice the prophecy of Genesis 49:

“Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall.

The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely,

yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), [compare Deuteronomy 33:17 and Micah 5:8]

by the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.” (Genesis 49:22-26)

Joseph’s blessings of fertility, colonisation, and resources are rooted in the above. He further contended that the birthright promises were withheld for 2,520 years (7 prophetic times, as indicated in Leviticus 26) as a form of punishment, concluding around the early 1800s. This period coincided with Britain’s ascension to empire status and America’s gradual growth to world leadership (e.g., Louisiana Purchase etc).

This was connected to the migrations of ancient Israelites (through Scythians, Cimmerians, etc.) to the Anglo-Saxon peoples by highlighting similarities in names, language, and heraldry.

In chapter 10 of the book titled “Birthright Withheld 2520 Years!”, he outlines the sudden emergence of these two powers as the realisation of the promises made to the sons of Joseph. These developments cannot reasonably be dismissed as mere coincidence.

Summary of Mr Armstrong’s position is as follows:

Armstrong characterised this identity as the “master key” for interpreting Bible prophecy, particularly regarding end-time events that would impact the U.S. and Britain (which he cautioned would incur national punishment for their sins unless they repented). The U.S. (representing Manasseh) was foretold to become a prominent single nation, strong yet not matching Britain’s (Ephraim’s) overall blessings over time – although in our times, America has outstripped Britain itself.

Note on various editions: The book has developed from earlier iterations (for instance, The United States in Prophecy from the 1940s) into the more comprehensive The United States and Britain in Prophecy. The 1980 edition is among the most frequently cited. Every edition of the book is on the Friends of the Sabbath website here with the exception of the 1986 edition.

To understand in more detail how God inspired for this doctrine to be incorporated into its belief system, have a read of the article How the Israel Identity Truth entered the Church of God.

Summary of Mr Armstrong’s position is as follows:

Armstrong characterised this identity as the “master key” for interpreting Bible prophecy, particularly regarding end-time events that would impact the U.S. and Britain (which he cautioned would incur national punishment for their sins unless they repented). The U.S. (representing Manasseh) was foretold to become a prominent single nation, strong yet not matching Britain’s (Ephraim’s) overall blessings over time – although in our times, America has outstripped Britain itself.

Note on various editions: The book has developed from earlier iterations (for instance, The United States in Prophecy from the 1940s) into the more comprehensive The United States and Britain in Prophecy. The 1980 edition is among the most frequently cited. Every edition of the book is on the Friends of the Sabbath website here with the exception of the 1986 edition.

To understand in more detail how God inspired for this doctrine to be incorporated into its belief system, have a read of the article How the Israel Identity Truth entered the Church of God.

Key Works Influencing the ‘Manasseh’ doctrinal position

1. Our Israelitish Origin by John Wilson (1840)

John Wilson’s work, Our Israelitish Origin, investigates the notion that the Anglo-Saxon peoples of Britain and their descendants are directly connected to the lost ten tribes of Israel. Wilson relies on Biblical prophecy, historical migrations, and linguistic similarities to bolster his claims. He argues that the moral, religious, and political traits of the Anglo-Saxon nations correspond with the covenantal blessings promised to Israel in the Scriptures. Wilson interprets historical events, such as the settlement of the Saxons in Britain, as proof of Divine guidance and the preservation of Israelite identity. Furthermore, he underscores the spiritual and national duties he believes arise from this lineage, contending that Anglo-Saxon nations are uniquely equipped to fulfill God’s purpose in the world.

2. Forty-Seven Identifications of the Anglo-Saxons with the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel by Edward Hine (1878)

Edward Hine’s work presents a methodical collection of links between the Anglo-Saxon peoples and the ‘lost’ tribes of Israel. The list of identifications encompass religious, historical, linguistic, and cultural evidence. Hine investigates surnames, traditions, historical documents, and migrations to support his claim that the Anglo-Saxons are the direct peoples of Biblical Israel. The text is meticulously detailed, which includes evidence that supports his argument. Hine also interprets geopolitical occurrences, such as the emergence of the British Empire, as a sign of Divine favour and intervention towards the modern descendants of Israel. It significantly contributed to the popularisation of British Israelism during the late 19th century.

3. Manasseh and The United States by Rev. Joseph Wild (1882)

Rev. Joseph Wild’s work, Manasseh and The United States, explicitly identifies the United States as the tribe of Manasseh. Wild contends that the European settlers to North America, particularly those of Anglo-Saxon descent, fulfills the prophecies concerning Manasseh’s destiny to be numerous and prosperous. The book interprets the political, economic, and military strength of the United States as a sign of Divine execution of the Genesis promises. He believes that the Anglo-Saxon descendants, particularly in America, possess a distinct mission in the course of world history.

America as Manasseh in the Contemporary World

Within the context of the aforementioned influencers, most adherents to the British-Israel doctrine are of the view that Anglo-Americans are descendants of Manasseh, though there is variation within this view. While others feel that America is Ephraim or Dan. So, while differences of opinion remain, such discussions can be conducted in a spirit of mutual respect and civility.

If America is indeed linked to Manasseh, one might reasonably ask whether any characteristics associated with the Biblical tribe can still be observed in the modern nation. One feature noted by commentators is the meaning traditionally associated with the name Manasseh: “causing to forget.”

For this writer, it is of interest that Manasseh means to “making to forget” (New Bible Dictionary, p. 778). The ESV Study Bible notes: “Manasseh sounds like the Hebrew for making to forget.” He was so named because as stated in the Book of Genesis, upon the birth of his first son, Joseph named him Manasseh, derived from the Hebrew term nashah, as God enabled him to “forget all my troubles and all my father’s household.”

This forgetfulness sometimes appeared in the character of the tribes later on in the Old Testament such as forgetting God’s command during the conquest (Joshua 17); forgetting God for pagan idols (1 Chronicles 5); centuries later, the southern Kingdom of Judah was ruled by a king named Manasseh (the namesake of the tribe). He may be viewed as a Scriptural example of spiritual forgetfulness.

It was therefore of interest when I read this quote in 1987:

“Because Americans’ historical memories are so short, there is little understanding for the Federal Republic …” (R. G. Livingston, Die Zeist, “Reagan visit highlights,” reprinted in The German Tribune, 21 June 1987, p. 3)

Interestingly, some historians and political scientists call this American behaviour “historical amnesia” or “strategic forgetting” in American foreign policy and domestic governance.

This includes thinkers such as leftwing historian Gore Vidal who referred to the nation as the “United States of Amnesia,” arguing that America regularly erases history to approach new global crises with a clean slate.

From these thinkers and researchers, it is clear that well-documented instances of this amnesia occur in various aspects of American history:

1. Cyclical Foreign Interventions:
American foreign policy often overlooks the consequences of recent interventions, resulting in the recurrence of the same strategic blunders.

For example during the Vietnam to Iraq/Afghanistan Cycle, in the 1960s and 70s, the United States learned difficult lessons regarding the limitations of military power in Vietnam. However, by the early 2000s, these insights had been disregarded. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan repeated the same mistakes. Throughout the Cold War, the United States provided arms to radical militant groups in Afghanistan (the Mujahideen) to combat the Soviet Union, completely neglecting the long-term dangers of exacerbating extremism. Years later, those very networks transformed into the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, which the United States subsequently invested trillions of dollars to combat.

2. The “Recurrence of Innocence”:
Political analysts observe that the United States tends to overlook its historical responsibility for regional instability, which enables it to present each new intervention as fundamentally moral and reactive.

In Latin America the U.S. has often shown confusion regarding political instability or anti-American feelings in Central and South America. This reaction completely disregards the time during which the U.S. actively deposed democratically elected leaders and supported military regimes in nations such as Chile, Guatemala, and Argentina to prevent the spread of communism.

Similarly, in the Middle East: American dialogue often characterises hostility from the Middle East as an intrinsic cultural characteristic. Yet sometimes American actions have provoked this backlash.

3. Public Literacy and “Geopolitical Blindness”:

This institutional forgetfulness is bolstered by a deficiency in historical and geographical understanding among the general populace. A notable survey (U.S. Adults’ Knowledge About the World) conducted by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in December 2019 revealed that adult Americans correctly answered only about fifty percent of fundamental questions regarding world affairs and geography. Due to the decline of public memory, political leaders can repackage outdated strategies with new terminology, thereby evading responsibility for previous shortcomings.

4. Domestic Amnesia:

Economy and Public Health. This Manasseh-like tendency toward forgetfulness is not confined to international affairs; it can also be seen in domestic policy. One example is financial deregulation. In the aftermath of the Great Depression of 1929, the United States established regulations (such as the Glass-Steagall Act) to prevent banks from engaging in excessively risky activities. Over the years, Washington lost sight of the reasons behind these regulations and dismantled them in the 1990s which contributed to the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.

Similar to the ancient tribe of Manasseh, this forgetfulness is seldom unintentional (eg 1 Chronicles 5:23-26), but serves as a convenient consequence of a people that seemingly prioritises short-term outcomes over historical understanding.

US Ethnic composition

Critics of the Manasseh identification often point to America’s increasingly diverse ethnic composition. Therefore, it is useful to examine the historical demographic foundations of the United States and the extent to which its early population was derived from British and north-western European stock.

The dominant European population in the US was overwhelmingly from British stock from the earliest times, but this has decrease markedly.

Research indicates the following European ethnic percentages.

1700:

English: 90%

Keltic: 3%

Other: 7%

1800:

English: 66%

Keltic: 18%

German: 12%

Other: 4%

1900:

English: 42%

Keltic: 18%

German: 15%

Other: 25%

Here are approximate percentages for those Americans claiming descent from northern and northwestern European stock based on 1920-era data:

The ethnic composition of America has changed dramatically over the past century.

Based on the latest U.S. Census Bureau data from the 2022 American Community Survey here are the approximate percentages:

These figures are based on a U.S. population of approximately 333 million.

What of the ‘German’ migrations to America?

During the mid-to-late 19th century, particularly between the 1840s and 1880s, hundreds of thousands of individuals emigrated from western Germany, including regions such as Rhineland, Westphalia, and Rhineland-Palatinate. Their motivations for leaving were based on a combination of economic difficulties, political dissatisfaction, and resistance to Prussian militarism, especially in light of Bismarck’s unification policies and the imposition of mandatory military service. In fact, around 5 million migrated to America during the 19th century!

1. Economic Challenges: Population density, division of land (inheritance practices), agricultural failures (potato blight from 1845 to 1849, further failures in the 1850s), diminishing cottage industries, and industrialisation pushing rural labourers out of work. Sources: Pushes, Pulls and the Records: A Brief Review of the Various Waves of German Immigrants to the United States” by Bernard N. Meisner (2019) which discusses 1840s crop failures including potato blight in Germany and resulting mass emigration (pp. 3-4). Another is James Boyd, An Investigation into the Structural Causes of German Emigration to the United States during the Nineteenth Century (PhD thesis, Cardiff University, 2013), pp. 143-151 – covering 1830s-1880s waves, economic growth followed by heavy outflows of 750,000 per decade in the mid-late 19th century.

2. Militarism, Conscription, and Bismarck/Prussian Policies: Compulsory military service, which was expanded in Prussia during the 1860s, along with the opposition to Bismarck’s wars (1864, 1866, 1870–71), authoritarian unification, and the policies implemented after 1871. A significant number of young men chose to emigrate to evade the draft. See British Royal Commission report (1870s–1880s), excerpted in German History in Documents and Images: “Causes and Effects of Emigration from Germany (1870s–1880s).” It states: “…discontent felt, at any rate in time of peace, with the German military system” alongside low wages and industrial decline. And FamilySearch Wiki, Germany Emigration and Immigration (updated 2026): “Many Germans also left to avoid wars and military service” in the 1820–1871 wave, noting heavy involvement from Rhineland and Westfalia.

3. Political Discontent and Forty-Eighters (1848–1850s wave): The failed revolutions of 1848 resulted in a wave of political refugees, predominantly from western and southwestern Germany, particularly the Rhineland regions, escaping repression. This phenomenon coincided with economic motivations and the emergence of early anti-Prussian sentiments. Refer to Carl Wittke, Refugees of Revolution: The German Forty-Eighters in America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1952), pp. 46–49 (discusses Hessian and other western German revolutionaries emigrating, sometimes released on condition of leaving for America); and Dieter Cunz, The Maryland Germans: A History (Princeton, 1948), which references to these Forty-Eighters on pp. 204–206.

Other sources include: Walter Kamphoefner, The Westfalians: From Germany to Missouri (Princeton University Press, 1987) which focuses on Westphalian (western German) emigration patterns in the 19th century, linking economic and military factors. Also, Ute Langer in his chapter on “Emigration from the Rhineland in the Nineteenth Century” (chapter 3) in Wisconsin German Land and Life (Heike Bungert and Robert Ostergren, eds).

So, while economic factors dominate academic accounts, anti-militarism and opposition to Bismarck-era Prussian dominance appear consistently as important secondary motives, especially for males of military age from Prussian-controlled western provinces.

From what can be taken from this is that the so-called ‘German’ element was mainly (but not completely) from the far west of Germany, near the borders of France and Belgium and not far from where the Anglo-Saxons migrated from to Britain a few centuries prior – from the north-west German and Denmark region.

Nineteenth-century German emigration to America drew heavily from western and southwestern Germany, especially the Rhineland, Westphalia, Hesse, Baden, Württemberg, and the Palatinate. At the same time, western Germany was increasingly replenished by internal migrants from eastern and southern Germany as industrialisation accelerated. The emigrants were not confined to the far western or northwestern German region traditionally associated with the Anglo-Saxons, although some migrants did originate from areas geographically adjacent to those ancient homelands.

From the 1870s onward, Germany experienced massive internal migration to the western regions. People moved:

The Ruhr became one of Europe’s largest industrial regions and attracted workers from all over Germany. Therefore, while a farming family from the Rhineland might emigrate to Missouri or Wisconsin, a miner from Silesia or labourer from East Prussia might move into the Ruhr or Cologne region. Israelites were thereby replaced by descendants of Hittites and Assyrians.

By the late 19th century, many western provinces were actually net recipients of migrants. A common pattern was:

This was especially true after German unification in 1871 and the industrial boom that followed.

This process is well documented by migration historians (refer again to Walter Kamphoefner in The Westfalians: From Germany to Missouri).

Raymond McNair in his book Key to Northwest European Origins addresses some of this aspect of Israelitish migrations in chapter 5. The book is available for purchase via Amazon.

Final Comments

From Biblical and historical research, there can be little doubt that the United States (specifically its Anglo-American core population) represents the modern fulfillment of the Biblical tribe of Manasseh, one of the two sons of Joseph who received the birthright blessings of national greatness.

It is self-evident that Biblical, historical, and national-character strongly supports the identification of the United States as modern Manasseh. The sudden rise of Anglo-American power, fulfillment of specific national promises (population, wealth, military strength), and even cultural traits like historical forgetfulness are presented as clear signs of Divine covenantal blessings continuing through the descendants of Joseph’s son, Manasseh.

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